Q. I went for Hajj when I was 13 with my grandfather and grandmother. Now I am 26 years old.  My father died when I was young and he never performed hajj. I was told that I must do hajj for him and not myself. Is this correct?

A. Had you been considered mature at 13, then your Hajj has been completed. Should this be the case, you can do what is known as Hajj-e-badl. Hajj-e-badl refers to a person going for the Hajj on behalf of someone else, for a person upon whom Hajj was fard, but did not manage to fulfill his/her obligation.

Without going into the details of whether your father was eligible to perform Hajj or not, or whether he left money behind for this action or not, we would recommend that your doing so on his behalf would not only be meritorious, but far more superior than you doing what would fall into the category of a nafl hajj for yourself.

Allah certainly knows best.